


Joesph West and the Partner's Curse

by wordswehavesaid



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Gen, Team Flash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-11 22:58:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7910875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordswehavesaid/pseuds/wordswehavesaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cisco and Barry can't help noticing there's a position at the precinct that seems to require filling at least once a year...and things get a little out of hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Joesph West and the Partner's Curse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SwiftEmera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwiftEmera/gifts).



> This started out as a cracky idea between SwiftEmera aka Amie and I as we discussed Joe's lack of luck in finding a permanent partner and how it resembled a certain job in another fandom we both happen to share. Please enjoy!

It’s a calm day, a normal day. No metahuman activity, no fires to put out. Barry has spent the majority of the morning up in his lab at the precinct, catching up on some paperwork he’d maybe been letting slide for a little.

On the way down to deliver it, however, he finds Cisco in the bullpen. Apparently his friend had been demonstrating some new tech to the Captain. “Hey dude, you need a lift back to S.T.A.R.?”

“No thanks, man,” the engineer responds. “I took the van.”

“Alright, well I just gotta drop these off with the Captain and then I’ll meet you there. Nothing’s popped up?”

“Nope.” Cisco says, popping the ‘p’. “Think maybe we can pack it in early. I got Wrath of Khan and popcorn.”

“Dude, just say when.”

Cisco grins, though he says nothing in reply as one of the newer officers walks by with a big smile on his face and stops to speak to them. Well, one of them. "Hey, Allen, right? I just got promoted to Detective. West's partner. I hear you two are close, put in a good word for me, alright?"

And Barry's all smiles now, too, about to agree until he hears Cisco say under his breath, "Somebody's a goner," and instead he chokes on a laugh.

The newly appointed detective stops. "What do you mean? What's wrong with West?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Barry hastens to reassure, because this is his _dad_ , c'mon Cisco! He nudges his friend, who straightens up and nods along.

"Right, nothing wrong with _Joe_."

"So...so what is it?"

Barry and Cisco share a look. "It's only fair to tell him, dude."

The speedster heaves a sigh. "Ok, look, you didn't get this from me, but...Joe hasn't had the best luck with partners the last couple years."

"I know Detective Spivot resigned," the other man states, clearly wanting to prove himself.

Barry winces, and so Cisco hastens to move on from that subject. "Ok, but the last two partners? Dead."

"Wait, really?"

"Oh yeah."

Barry nods solemnly at the wall of portraits commemorating officers killed in the line of duty. "Eddie Thawne and Fred Chyre. Both great men."

The detective licks his lips, eyes scanning the names and faces nervously. "Well, well it says here Detective Chyre served for a long time."

"Yeah, he and Joe were partners for a long time, since I was a kid," Barry agrees, "so really, don't get too worked up about it, alright? It's probably just a coincidence."

He claps the other on the shoulder in a friendly gesture, but the man flinches slightly. "Yeah. Yeah, probably." He gives a strange, short laugh before making a hasty retreat to his desk.

"Probably for the best that he's ready to deal with Joe," Cisco offers as Barry stares after. "Love the man, but he's kind of touchy about new partners."

"Yeah." Barry still puts a good word in for him.

It doesn't do much good. About a week into the job, Detective West and his new partner get cornered in a shootout with a few of the Rogues and are only narrowly rescued by the Flash. The newcomer quits on the spot.

"I could've been killed!"

"That's part of the job, Travers," Joe points out. "You signed up!"

"Well not for this. At least I got lucky, at least I got a warning!" The other man storms off as he shouts over his shoulder, "I'll be handing my resignation to the Captain tonight!"

There's a long moment of silence. "What the hell is his problem?" Joe finally asks, turning to look at Barry. The masked hero shrugs.

"Oops," says Cisco's voice in Barry's ear.

\---

"If you ask me," Cisco is saying to Officer Gomez as she waits outside the Captain's office. Barry pauses on his way to deliver some case files. "He's been cursed."

"Detective West?"

"Yeah. None of his partners last more than a year."

"What about Detective Chyre?"

"Uh...well--"

"Yeah, I don't know," Barry says a little more loudly than necessary, drawing both of their attentions. "Fred and Joe were partners for years, right up until the particle accelerator

explosion—"

"Barry, that's it!" Cisco says, snapping his fingers. " _Genio_!"

"Wait, what?"

"It's his metahuman power."

"What?" say Barry and Gomez.

"Joe hasn't been able to keep a partner for over one year since the particle accelerator explosion, right?" Cisco repeats. They both nod. "He must have some kind of social repulsion powers. It's his Defense Against the Dark Arts curse."

"But why would it only repel his partners? That doesn't seem very scientific," Barry disputes, frowning at just the thought of Joe having powers that might distance them, or Joe from Iris or Wally.

"Could be that his powers are still developing. Or maybe he's unconsciously focusing all of his energy on the new partner."

"Why would he be trying to use his powers on them?" Gomez asks, something of an edge to her voice.

"Joe wouldn't use his powers on _anybody_ ," Barry states firmly.

Cisco raises his hands in a placating gesture. "Ok, everybody calm down. Like I said, it's unconscious. He doesn't know he's doing it. But three out of three times...I'd say he's pretty effective already. I mean, that's what the science is saying."

"Gomez! You can come in," Captain Singh's sudden call startles both the officer and Barry.

"Yes, sir."

"Allen, what are you standing around with those folders for? Get to work."

"Yes, sir." He motions for Cisco to walk with him as he moves around the bullpen handing them out. "Dude, you really need to stop telling people Joe's cursed."

"Hey, it's a perfectly valid hypothesis given all our evidence so far," his friend argues. "Besides it's totally harmless."

"What's harmless?" Joe's voice has the two of them exchanging panicked glances.

"Uh...Caitlin wanted to, uh, run some--"

"Some stuff, yeah! Some tests, I mean. After work."

"Alright. You got one of those for me first?" His foster father points to the last remaining file in his arms.

"Uhhhyeah! Last but not least," he says, handing it over with an awkward chuckle.

"You know Captain's talking to Gomez about a promotion to detective? She has a good head on her shoulders. I got a good feeling about this one."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Cisco mutters through his smile as the older man walks away.

"I'll take that bet," Barry decides.

The engineer arches an eyebrow. "Oh? Here to defend your father's honor?"

"Yeah." He nods. "Yeah, I am."

"Alright, bro, prepare to buy me dinner when she quits. I mean, I'm gonna hope she quits," his friend clarifies after a beat. "The other options are pretty undesirable."

\---

They end up having to call the bet a draw.

"She didn't even take the promotion, she technically never _was_ his partner."

"Sorry, I didn't realize you were such a stickler for the technicalities, Captain Cheapskate!"

"Are you two talking about Officer Gomez?" Iris asks as she walks into the cortex. "Dad was just telling me about it over the phone. Apparently she decided she liked where she was at?"

"Smart woman," Cisco remarks.

"Dude."

"Do I wanna know?"

Under Iris' scrutinizing gaze, Barry and Cisco exchange a look, yet it's Caitlin who answers, "Probably not, but if they keep arguing about it you'll get the gist."

"Alright, we'll drop it. Need to do a patrol anyway," Barry says, walking over to the suit.

"I'll get on the coms," Cisco adds dully, dropping into one of the chairs. Barry frowns, taking a breath before speed-changing and then stopping in front of Cisco's desk.

"We could make a new bet. For the next one, I mean."

His friend looks up, a spark of interest in his eyes. "Best two out of three?"

"Yeah, alright," he agrees. "So we cool?"

"Always, dude." They clasp hands briefly with matching grins, then Barry turns to go. But before he takes off he looks back.

"Captain Cheapskate? Really?"

"Ok, that was a bad name."

\---

Curse or metahuman ability, they've both pretty much agreed it's not so much a question of _if_ Joe will lose his next partner, but _when_. It's Wiere who leaves them next; after about three months he decides he's had enough of metahumans and transfers out to Opal City where his mother lives. Barry's disappointed, not because he particularly liked Calum, but because he was about three weeks short of the date he'd picked.

"Are the papers already through and everything?"

"Yeah, Allen, I told you my last day's Friday. Hey, you look out for Joe, alright? I swear, if it weren't for the Flash he'd be long gone by now." The other man gives a shake of his head before hefting the box he'd packed up into his arms and exiting the bullpen.

It's not until the Captain pulls Anderson into his office to discuss the other man's prospects that things really start to get a little...out of hand.

"Hey, Allen." It's Vukuvitch who stops him in the lobby with an arm slung over his shoulders. "Word is you and your science pal have a wager going on about the old man."

Barry chooses not to mention the officer's equally balding head. "Oh, well, it's just a joke bet, you know?"

"What's the stakes?"

He blinks. "Dinner?"

Vukuvitch purses his lips together a moment, then shakes his head. "Much as I'm sure you're a great date, some of the boys and I were thinking we turn this into an office pool. You know, little station morale booster. What do you say? You and your scientific adviser in?"

“Uhh…”

\---

“We could totally rig this, you know?” Cisco says, eyes half-glazed over as the credits play across the screen. They’re both half-sprawled on the engineer’s couch, stuffed with all kinds of junk food that’s going to make running home the last thing he wants to do tonight. “Pick a date for the pool and then when a metahuman inevitably attacks on that day and Joe and his partner are in the thick of it you just, you know, be a little slower than usual. Make it really close.”

“Cisco, I’m not gonna risk Joe’s new partner’s life just to win a bet. And I’m not risking Joe’s life for anything!”

“I know that,” his friend assures. “I’m just saying, we could rig it.”

“I’m starting to think we maybe rigged this whole thing from the start,” he mumbles into the beer that Cisco had given him anyway.

“Yeah,” his friend agrees softly, then nudges Barry’s foot with his own. “It’s been pretty funny, though, come on.”

Barry allows a grin to stretch across his lips. “Could you picture Vukuvitch’s face if we won the pool?”

They laugh until their sides hurt and Barry’s definitely too tired to run. So he just falls asleep where he is. Cisco never minds.

\---

It’s unlikely the results of the pool will come out anytime soon. The trouble with having a station-wide rumor that one of their detectives is cursed is that, well, the entire station has heard that rumor. Which makes them all a little leery of testing said curse, or fledgling metahuman ability for themselves. Not to mention, most everybody is really set on trying to win the pool.

In fact the only people who haven’t been approached about the issue are the Captain, of course, and Joe himself. His foster father’s taken to bringing the almost towering stack of files he has on any given day up to Barry’s lab, filling them out and chatting late into the night which is an arrangement that works fine enough for him.

But it occurs to him one evening after work and checking in at STAR, that what works fine for a man in his mid-twenties cannot be sustained by someone Joe’s age. The older man eases himself down into his favorite armchair after that night’s dinner with a low groan.

“Oh, I am _beat_.”

“Still up for the game, dad?” Wally asks with a smirk and the remote in hand.

“Put it on. Just one of you is gonna have to carry me to my bed or I’ll be sleeping here,” he says with a chuckle.

“You’ve been working late a lot of nights,” Iris remarks, concern clear in her gaze.

“Yeah, well, usually you’re supposed to split the work between two people. But without a partner…” he trails off and yawns. “Anyway, I’m fine with the way things are. Would rather have no one than a new one every other week or so. That’s no way to build trust.”

Barry tries not to squirm in his seat. Iris shooting him a pointed look isn’t helping.

So the next morning when Joe enters the labs with a larger coffee in his hand than usual, Barry gives Cisco one of his own looks.

His friend raises an inquisitive brow.

Barry tilts his head towards Joe.

Cisco shakes his head.

Barry says, loudly, “Hey, Joe? Cisco and I gotta talk to you about something.”

“Alright,” the detective says, joining them over at the computers. “What’s up?”

“It’s about work. Specifically the partner thing. See, Travers bumped into me and Cisco back when he got the badge—”

“The one that quit on me after that shootout?”

“Yep, that was him,” Cisco confirms.

“Right, and he was asking us about you, just you know, what it’d be like working with you,” Barry continues, “and I guess, with the way things have gone the last couple years, he got the impression that being a detective wasn’t the best idea, exactly.”

“He did, huh,” is all Joe says, though his jaw is set in that way where he’s thinking something over, following a lead. “And Gomez? You two talk to her, too?”

“We- we did, yes,” Cisco answers, eyes on the floor.

“And Wiere?”

“No, not specifically.” Barry then adds after a pause, “But by then he’d kind of heard about it from everybody else.”

“Heard about what?”

“Your metahuman curse powers that are entirely hypothetical and probably nonexistent,” Cisco says all in a rush, chancing a glance up. “Or possibly existent, I am feeling _very_ socially repelled right now, Barry—”

“Look the point is, it was a stupid joke that got way out of hand and we are so sorry, Joe. We never thought it was going to actually affect the station, or your _job_ —”

The man raises a hand and Barry’s mouth snaps shut. “You’re telling me the two of you convinced the entire station there’s some weird metahuman curse on my partner’s job?”

“Curse on the job, you’re the metahuman,” Cisco corrects helpfully.

Joe simply shakes his head, hand pressed over his mouth. It takes a second to register that he’s trying to hold in a giggle. “Joe?” Barry asks.

“I just—really? And they all bought that? This is—this is really the world we live in, huh?”

Barry and Cisco exchange tentative, hopeful looks. “So…it’s ok? You’re not mad?” He checks, like he’s fifteen again with Iris and the convertible. “We’re not—”

“Oh no, you’re in trouble alright—the Captain’s been tearing his hair out trying to fill that position. Somebody’s got to explain this to him, and it ain’t gonna be me,” his foster father states, then motions with one hand, “Let’s go.”

“Well, it was nice working for the CCPD while it lasted,” Cisco mutters.

“The Captain won’t fire you, you’re the only one who can supply the precinct with stuff to combat metas,” Barry assures. “He’ll probably just blame me. He usually does.”

\---

To say that the Captain is at all amused would be lying. Joe actually does do a fair bit of the explaining, at least enough to make everything Barry and Cisco did seem completely accidental. They leave Vukuvitch and the precinct pool out of it.

“This is ridiculous,” their boss grumbles from behind his desk. “You’re telling me nobody will partner with West because of some stupid joke about metas?”

“We’re really sorry, Captain,” Barry says to his toes not for the first time.

“Stop apologizing, Allen,” Singh rebukes. Cisco manages to nudge him in the ribs in time before he can open his mouth to apologize for apologizing. “It’s not going to do anything to fix the problem. Joe, we got to get you a partner. You’re one of my best detectives on the force, but you can’t keep going out there on your own.”

“I don’t really know what we can do about it until we get some new transfers in here, Captain,” Joe remarks.

“That would take too long. And what am I supposed to do in the meantime, send you out into the field and hope the Flash shows up? Might as well just make him your new partner at this rate.”

Barry, Joe, and Cisco exchange a look.

“Well, I mean…it’s not a _terrible_ idea,” Barry offers.

“Yeah, he and Joe tend to show up a lot of the same places,” Cisco chimes in. “I think he trusts him.”

“Wouldn’t get a complaint from me,” is all Joe says.

The Captain snorts. “Yeah, well, maybe next time he drops by we can talk it over.”

He dismisses them shortly after. Cisco heads out to return to STAR, but Joe catches Barry by the arm before he can take the stairs to his lab.

“What are you planning on doing?”

Barry grins. “Don’t worry about it. I got you, partner.”

\---

David jogs the final steps up to the precinct. He’d taken a late lunch break to meet up with Rob and now it’s back to work until the night shift.

Scarcely does he sit down, however, when there’s a sudden _whoosh_ of wind and blurred color, the papers on his desk whip up into the air, and the scarlet speedster himself stands in the corner of his office.

“ _Hello Captain_ ,” the Flash greets with blurred face and voice. “ _I heard there was a job opening_?”

\---

Joe comes up to Barry’s lab after dark again with another large stack of files. He shoots his foster father a quick grin in greeting before refocusing on the slides in front of him, but startles when the other man tosses about half the stack next to his work station.

“I expect my partner to do his full share of the work,” Joe says when Barry looks at him again.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Work ends up taking long well into the night, but they’re both too busy laughing to care.


End file.
